Earlier in November I was delighted to have been selected as the winner of the Lindsay Literary Agency Scholarship, to attend the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) British Isles Conference 2024 and meet Becky Bagnell of Lindsay Literary.
For the scholarship place, I submitted my work:
“My Quiet Place”.
Sounds are loud. Lights are bright.
Classrooms and playgrounds are busy.
Focussing is difficult. My thoughts race.
I can become anxious.
I can get cross.
But with a little help, I find my quiet place…
Synopsis: A gentle introduction for young readers to some of the difficulties some children face when growing up with Autism Spectrum Disorder, with a focus on sensory difficulties, encouraging understanding, support and problem solving within a daily school environment.
Becky said: “My Quiet Place is a thought provoking and important picture book text and I loved the colour images you included with your submission.”
At The SCBWI Conference
Here’s some pictures from my day down in London at the conference. I found the whole experience to be invaluable for learning about the industry and enjoyed keynote speeches from poet Laureate 2022-2024 and celebrated Children's author Joseph Coelho and hugely successful author-illustrator Helen Stephens.
During the break-out sessions, I attended the Picture Book Creators - Expanding Stories With Visual Thinking workshop with Helen Stephens. The drawing workshop featured timed challenge which helped to warm us up and create unexpected characters and scenarios that could spark new stories to tell.
Helen's artwork featured all around the conference, from our lanyard name cards to the amazing cake featuring Helen's characters of Iris and Lion from How to hide a lion.
Later in the day, an industry panel of experts delivered a Q&A session, including the following speakers: Ken Wilson-Max (Publisher, HarperCollins), Becky Bagnell (Literary Agent, Lindsay Literary), Linas Alsenas (Editorial Director, Penguin Random House), Tiffany Leeson (Creative Director, Farshore), and Helen Boyle (Illustration and Literary Agent, Pickled Ink).
Lastly - The School Visit Slam! A quick fire round of authors and illustrators shared snippets of their presentations that they deliver to schools with top tips for engaging a variety of age ranges and how to hold children's attention!
It was a whirlwind day of information and I particularly valued the encouragement from other established authors and illustrators that I made connections with.
I made the most of the opportunity to promote my illustration work too by placing my promotional postcards with other illustrator's work on display.
Below, some picture's from Helen's keynote speech which included information on her group The Good Ship Illustration, along with crew mates Katie Chappell and Tania Willis, that provide courses for authors and illustrators of children's picture books such as: Find Your Creative Voice, Picture Book Course and the newly created Business Course.
I have followed The Good Ship crew for years, and took the Picture Book Course when it set sail for the first time. At the time, as a beginner to creating picture books, this course taught me an incredible amount and I am very glad that I completed it, it has launched my picture book creation journey and I am grateful of the lifetime access to the course as my journey continues.
Below - Helen's character from The Good Ship Illustration course (also to become a picture book character in their own right) "Salty" is overwhelmed, the advice to take away is to just keep doing little bits and moving forward, however small those movements are and even if you have to half arse it! Keep going.
This slide of the presentation sent a ripple of giggles throughout the conference with many of us taking up a photo opportunity. I think we can all relate to Salty at times and as simple as it is, this advice really does help.
I’d like to say thank you to Becky at Lindsay Literary for her time and encouragement during our 1-2-1 session. My huge take away being a boost in confidence and belief that I do have what it takes to write and illustrate for children and I am excited to continue my journey in both writing and illustrating.
Thank you to the entire team at SCBWI and all the authors and illustrators involved for a wonderfully delivered conference.